It took former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner all of 30 seconds to dismantle the Republican Party’s latest impeachment talking point.
During an interview with MSNBC’s Ari Melber, Kirschner said the GOP argument – that Donald Trump is innocent because military aid for Ukraine was eventually released – is ludicrous.
“The only reason, Ari, that the money was ultimately released was because they got caught,” he said.
Kirschner added that if Trump and his henchmen truly believed that withholding that money was appropriate, they wouldn’t have changed course immediately after the whistleblower complaint surfaced.
In other words, they knew it was dirty. Once it was exposed, they scrambled to unfreeze the military assistance for Ukraine.
Video:
.@glennkirschner2 reminds Republicans that attempting a crime is still a crime, even if you try to backtrack after being caught. #ctl #p2 pic.twitter.com/S7xVeBhAnx
— PoliticusUSA (@politicususa) November 15, 2019
Kirschner said:
Yeah, the plot really did come to fruition, and the only reason, Ari, that the money was ultimately released was because they got caught. And here’s the thing, if you get caught by the whistle-blower outing you and you are righteously withholding that money from Ukraine, you don’t have to change course. You can say, listen, the whistle-blower’s out to lunch, we made a decision. It was righteous, it was appropriate and we’re going to stick with it. No, when they got caught, that’s when they released the money.
Just another failed GOP impeachment talking point
Since the beginning of this formal House impeachment inquiry, the White House and Republicans in Congress have struggled to come up with a coherent defense of Donald Trump’s criminal behavior.
They’ve scrambled between attacking the initial whistleblower, claiming the Ukraine call was “perfect,” admitting that the call was troubling but not impeachable, and of course saying that it’s all A-okay because the funding ultimately went through.
What they forget when they push the latest argument about the aid eventually being unfrozen is that crimes are still crimes even if you backtrack after getting caught.
To paraphrase Rep. Joaquin Castro from Wednesday’s first public impeachment hearing: Attempted murder is a crime. Attempted robbery is a crime. Attempted bribery and extortion is a crime.
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